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Editorial: Rebuilding Springfield starts one home at a time

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Oscar and Carol Granado, the homeowners at 163 Tyler St., Springfield, talk about what the Rebuilding Together program means to them. Rebuilding Together Springfield, held a press conference in front of their house Tuesday to announce a "cluster rebuild" of 25 homes on April 27 in the City's Old Hill neighborhood. (Photo by Don Treeger / The Republican)

If home is where the heart is, imagine the size of the 1,000 big hearts gathered in the Old Hill neighborhood April 27 to help repair and renovate 25 homes, as part of National Rebuilding Day.

Representatives of the Springfield Affiliate of Rebuilding Together, along with volunteers, sponsors, and neighborhood residents are targeting homes on Tyler Street from Hancock Street to Eastern Avenue and expect to spend upwards of a half million dollars in donated supplies and labor before the day is done.

Rebuilding Together is a national organization founded over 30 years ago, with a stated mission of, “Bringing volunteers and communities together to improve the homes and lives of low-income homeowners.” Some of the properties were damaged in the tornado of 2011 others have gone much longer since anyone has called them home.

The major renovations will include converting some heating systems to natural gas, new roofs, new energy-efficient windows and doors, proper ventilation, and painting. In addition, there will be electrical and plumbing repairs, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, locks, fencing, and landscaping.

Certainly the homeowners will benefit from the help of neighbors in restoring their properties. But we see the rebuilding as benefiting far more than 25 individuals. Each rebuilt home becomes part of an energized block, and each block, part of a rejuvenated neighborhood. Rejuvenated neighborhoods bring in more homeowners and more property owners — seeing that others care about their homes — begin to care more about their own.

Reborn neighborhoods full of rejuvenated neighbors breed a pride in the city that can spread to other neighborhoods. And you put together enough reborn neighborhoods and you get a new city.

It won’t all happen on April 27 of course but if a neighborhood can slip away one house at a time, surely it can be rebuilt the same way.

Colleen S. Loveless, executive director of Rebuilding Together, knows that the city can be reclaimed if the people who live there have the will to do it.

“Day by day, block by block, that’s how we revitalize the city,” she said.